Altium Concord Pro

Exploring the Browser-based Interface of Altium Concord Pro

Created: May 6, 2020 | Updated: September 3, 2021
Now reading version 2.0. For the latest, read: Exploring the Browser-based Interface for version 4.1

Parent page: Installation, Licensing & Management

In addition to connecting to Altium Concord Pro through Altium Designer, and interfacing to it primarily through the Explorer panel and Components panel (for direct interaction with the managed components therein), you can also connect to it through a dedicated browser interface. In fact, connection in this way is more than just a connection to Altium Concord Pro itself. Rather it is a connection into the Altium Concord Pro server platform, with access to management interfaces for the various services available as part of the wider Concord Pro installation. Indeed, with some of these services, your only interaction with them is through this browser-based interface.

Accessing the Interface

To access your Altium Concord Pro installation through its browser interface, use a preferred external Web browser and type the address for Altium Concord Pro in one of the following formats:

  • http://<ComputerName>:<PortNumber>
  • http://localhost:<PortNumber> - if accessing from the same computer on which Concord Pro is installed.

(e.g. http://designerhome:9780, or http://localhost:9780, for an instance of Altium Concord Pro installed using the default port assignment). You will be presented with a Sign-in page.

Note that a newly installed instance of Concord Pro is unlicensed and not accessible from the network, so the initial browser connection must be made using the local machine - the PC that hosts Concord Pro. To connect, use Concord Pro's internal address (http://localhost:9780, using the default port number) or its network address (http://<computername>:9780 - where <computername> is the Concord Pro host PC's network name, and using the default port number). To confirm a PC's network name, go to Control Panel\System and Security\System and note the 'Computer Name' entry.

When subsequently licensed, Concord Pro can be reached from all computers on the network using the <computername> address.

Depending on your browser, you can drop the http:// part, and simply enter <ComputerName>:<PortNumber>, or localhost:<PortNumber>. Note that Concord Pro also supports a secure connection using the HTTPS protocol: https://<ComputerName>:<PortNumber>. For more information, see HTTPS Protocol Support.

Sign in through the browser interface using the same Altium Concord Pro credentials used to connect through Altium Designer. For a newly installed Altium Concord Pro instance, there is a default administrative user with the credentials:

  • Username: admin
  • Password: admin
While the default admin user could be left for general entry to Concord Pro by administrators, it is a good idea to change the First Name, Last Name and Username to something more meaningful for your organization. And it's definitely a good idea to change the default password from admin to something only known/passed to authorized administrators - otherwise everyone could access Concord Pro as an administrator!
If you want to sign in using your Windows login credentials - taking advantage of Concord Pro's support for Windows Authentication - enable the Use Windows Session option.

Access Altium Concord Pro, and its associated platform services, through a preferred external Web browser. Roll the mouse over the image to see the effect of successfully signing in to the interface.Access Altium Concord Pro, and its associated platform services, through a preferred external Web browser. Roll the mouse over the image to see the effect of successfully signing in to the interface.

What's Provided?

The interface provides a number of key technologies and services, and can be coarsely divided into two groupings, as shown in the following image, and listed thereafter.

The overall browser interface can be divided into two distinct sets of interface elements - those accessible in general by all users of Altium Concord Pro, and those accessible only by Concord Pro Administrators.The overall browser interface can be divided into two distinct sets of interface elements - those accessible in general by all users of Altium Concord Pro, and those accessible only by Concord Pro Administrators.

  1. Interface elements that can be accessed by any Concord Pro user. Note that some sub-elements may be admin-only, and they will be highlighted in the detailed sections that follow. To access a page, click on its name within the left-hand navigation tree.
  2. Interface elements that can only be accessed by a Concord Pro Administrator. A single, administrative user is provided, admin. This user, and any additional user, is bestowed administrative powers by membership to the role Administrators. To access a page, choose the required entry within the Admin section of the left-hand navigation tree.

The following additional elements are contained in the banner area, at the top of the interface:

At the far right of the banner area, at the top of the interface, an entry reflects the user that is currently signed into Concord Pro, along with a picture (if defined), and the name of the server.

The drop-down menu associated with the entry provides the following:

  • Account Settings - takes you to your AltiumLive account profile page.
  • Sign Out - signs you out of the Altium Concord Pro browser interface, taking you back to the sign in page.

General Access Interface Elements

The following sections summarize the elements of Concord Pro's browser interface that can be accessed by all users of Altium Concord Pro - both administrators and standard users.

Home

This page provides quick reference information tailored to, and relevant for, the Concord Pro user who is currently signed in through the interface.

Example content for a user on their Home page.Example content for a user on their Home page.

The page presents two lists:

  • My Projects - this is a graphical listing of managed projects that have been created by the signed-in user, complete with 3D image of the PCB (where available), name, and last modified date/time. The most recently created project appears at the top-left of the list. Double-click on a project entry to access the detailed management view for that project - the Projects Management page - in a separate tab. This provides a CAD-centric interface offering Design, BOM and Manufacturing view options. For more detail on using this view, see Management of a Specific Project.

Click the  button within the projects' tile to access a menu of commands for that project:

  • Edit - use this command to access the Project Editing window, from where you can change the name and description for the project, as well as add server parameters (parameters that are added to a managed project and stored on the server-side).
  • Share - use this command to access the Manage Permissions window, from where access permissions for the project can be modified as required.
  • Delete - use this command to remove the project from Concord Pro. The Delete Project window will appear, offering various options for project removal.
  • Recent Activity - this is very much a reflection of the real-time notifications found on the Stream page of the interface. Each message includes a link to the entity affected by the event, on the relevant page of the interface. The most recent event appears at the top of the list.

Team

Related pages: Managing Users, Configuring LDAP Sync

This area provides the interface to the Identity Service (IDS), to define applicable service access, through specification of users and roles.

Access and manage the users of your Altium Concord Pro installation.Access and manage the users of your Altium Concord Pro installation.

Controls are spread over the following sub-pages:

  • Users - use this page to create and manage a list of users; people who are to have access to Altium Concord Pro and/or the associated technologies installed with it.
  • Roles - use this page to create and manage a list of roles; roles allow you to further organize your users according to, for example, the particular section of the organization in which they are involved, or the design team they are in. Roles also make the sharing of Concord Pro content, and the configuration of other served technologies, more streamlined.
  • LDAP Sync - use this page to configure and run an LDAP Sync task. This allows an administrator of your Altium Concord Pro installation to leverage the network domain’s existing username and password credentials, so that user credentials do not have to be created manually one at a time on the Users page. When setup correctly, the Users page will automatically populate with user credentials, enabling any user listed to sign into Concord Pro using their regular corporate network username and password.
  • Sessions - use this page to quickly assess which of your users are currently signed into Altium Concord Pro. Provision is made for an administrator to terminate a user's access to Concord Pro by effectively 'killing' their active session, thereby freeing connections to the Server for use by others.
Two administrative users are provided with a new Altium Concord Pro installation - admin and System. The former, which is visible from the Users page, allows you to quickly get access to Concord Pro as an administrator. Once you have added other users, you can keep and edit the admin user (change its name and password for example), or delete it. The System user, which is not visible from the Users page, is used for all background tasks (including LDAP Sync and Notifications). This user is permanently online.
Only an administrative user has full access to management controls. While a non-administrative user can browse Users and Roles, they cannot access LDAP Sync or Sessions. And while management of users by a non-administrative user is not generally possible, they are able to change the profile of their own user - including changing username and password, and uploading a photo.

Projects

Related page: Managed Projects

This page provides the interface to the Projects service, to create and manage design projects in a central location, in a CAD-centric way, and share those projects for team collaboration as required. The page lists all projects that have been made available to Concord Pro, and which are shared with the currently signed-in user. Managed projects target the development stage of the project lifecycle, simplifying the creation and ongoing workflow for version controlled projects. From here you can create new projects, and open and manage existing ones. From this interface, a project can also be shared, or rather its access permissions configured.

The beauty of managed projects is that they are version controlled by default, and can be collaboratively worked upon without having to worry about shared drives, servers, agreements etc.

Prior to creating a new managed project, or converting an existing non-managed project, ensure that a Design Repository exists in which to store that project, and all future projects. Design Repositories are centrally managed as part of Altium Concord Pro, through its local Version Control service. A new installation of Altium Concord Pro provides a single Git-based design repository - Versioned Storage - for accommodating all of your managed design projects.

If you have upgraded your Server from Altium NEXUS Server 1.0 (or Altium Vault 3.0), then use of SVN repositories will also be enabled, so that you can continue to use your previous (and established) design flow. In this case, you can continue to create repositories through the local Version Control service (SVN-only), or connect to external repositories (SVN or Git).

Centralized design project management - all part of your Altium Concord Pro installation.Centralized design project management - all part of your Altium Concord Pro installation.

A project created through this interface, or through Altium Designer, will initially be available to the designer who created it, and all Administrators for that Altium Concord Pro installation, in terms of full Read/Write access. The project will also be shared to all server users, but with Read-only access. To make a project accessible to other server users, share it by configuring its permissions.

You can also access a manufacturing orientated CAD-centric view of the project, opened by selecting the required project and clicking the  control above the listing of projects, and choosing the Open entry on the associated menu. Alternatively, double-click directly on the required project entry in the list (or click on its name). The Projects Management page for that project opens in a new browser tab incorporating the CAD-centric interface, which offers Design, BOM and Manufacturing view options:

  • Design - display and navigate source project design documents, view design object properties and place review comments. This view uses the Web Review interface. This view is for the latest version of the source project data, rather than a specified release from that project, and so could be considered to be a work-in-progress (WIP) view. You can review both the base design and any defined variant thereof.

  • BOM - allows you to interactively examine work-in-progress (WIP) BOM data extracted from the design documents, including entries for Manufacturer and Supplier parts data derived from a project's populated ActiveBOM document.

  • Manufacturing - view the releases for the project. Access is provided for opening a release, which will be presented on a separate tab through a Manufacturing Portal. From this portal you can view and navigate the released Assembly and Fabrication data, inspect the BOM, and ultimately download the data into a manufacturing Build Package.

For more information on using this view, see Management of a Specific Project.

Explorer

Related page: Managing Content Structure & Access

This page gives you access to the structure of Altium Concord Pro, and is similar in presentation and layout to that of the Explorer panel. From here, you will be able to browse the folders and Items within Concord Pro. And although you can't create or edit Items from within the browser interface (you can remove them), you are able to create and edit folders, and so build Concord Pro's structure, without having to be connected to it through Altium Designer.

You can also define folder-level and Item-level sharing from this interface - controlling who is able to see what content in Concord Pro and, at the folder level, whether other users can simply view a folder and its content, or also edit it (effectively releasing/committing/uploading design data into it).

Content can also be downloaded from Concord Pro, directly from this interface.

Browse and define the structure of your Altium Concord Pro installation, as well as defining access and being able to download content.Browse and define the structure of your Altium Concord Pro installation, as well as defining access and being able to download content.

Concord Pro Administrators will be able to see and manage all Server content. For a shared user of Altium Concord Pro (non-admin), only those folders that have been shared - i.e. the user has permissions to access - will be accessible when the user signs in to that instance of Concord Pro.
Non-administrative users can only share a folder they have created.

Stream

This page provides a live feed of event notifications applicable to, and relevant for, the Concord Pro user who is currently signed in through the interface. The page can be accessed in two ways:

Example content for a user on their Stream page.Example content for a user on their Stream page.

Each message in the stream carries similar information:

  • The name of the user whose action has resulted in the event.
  • The time the event happened (in terms of how many minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years have elapsed since the event occurred).
  • An automated message describing the event. A link is also included to the entity affected by the event. This can be:
    • A Managed Project (on the Projects page of the interface).
    • A Component Revision (on the Explorer page of the interface).
    • A Part Request (on the Part Requests page of the interface).
  • An optional user-added note, where available, that gives extra information.
The most recent event appears at the top of the list.

By default, all notification types are presented. To change this, click on the All control and choose a particular notification type to display.

Use the Mark as read control, to the right of a notification, to mark it as read. This removes that message from the unread list. To quickly clear the unread status from all messages, click the Mark All as Read control, at the top-right of the list.

MCAD Plugins

Related page: ECAD-MCAD CoDesign

This page relates to ECAD-MCAD CoDesign functionality. In Altium Designer (the ECAD side), this functionality is provided through the MCAD CoDesigner panel - your interface to the MCAD software being used. On the MCAD side, this functionality is delivered through a corresponding panel, provided through installation (and registration to the MCAD software) of the Altium CoDesigner plugin.

The following MCAD platforms are supported when using the latest Altium CoDesigner plugins:

  • Dassault Systemes SOLIDWORKS®
  • Autodesk Inventor Professional®
  • PTC Creo Parametric®
  • Autodesk Fusion 360®
The versions of MCAD tools officially supported will depend on the version of Altium CoDesigner plugin being used. This information can be found on the New in CoDesigner page.

The MCAD Plugins page provides access to the installers (for installing the Altium CoDesigner plugin) for the various supported MCAD platforms. Click on the tile for the MCAD software you are using. On the subsequent page, click the  button to download the installer used to perform installation - through an intuitive installation wizard - of the Altium CoDesigner plugin, into your MCAD software installation. The page also presents a concise Getting Started guide - to get you up and running with collaboration between Altium Designer and your chosen MCAD software.

The MCAD Plugins page, with subsequent page shown for the SOLIDWORKS MCAD platform.The MCAD Plugins page, with subsequent page shown for the SOLIDWORKS MCAD platform.

The plugin required to add this co-design functionality to your MCAD design software installation can be acquired from the Downloads page of the altium.com site (look for the MCAD CODESIGNER PLUGINS section).
If your MCAD platform is not currently supported, click the Let Us Know link to access a window with which to tell us. This will help us to gauge the level of interest and help to determine which MCAD platforms to consider supporting next.

Part Requests

Related page: Part Requests

This page enables you to create and manage requests for new managed components. An engineer can simply put in a request for one or more parts to be created, and get notified when that request has either been completed, and the component(s) made available, or rejected (and why). The requestor supplies as much key information to support their request as possible (manufacturer and part number(s), description(s), any relevant datasheet (PDF or URL)). Stub Component Items can even be created that the librarian can then run with (and finish off).

You'll need to specify which role (or roles) should be used to fulfill the role of Librarians for your organization. In essence, you are configuring a set of users of Concord Pro that can be assigned to a part request. This is performed by an Administrator through the Admin - Settings - Vault - Part Requests - Librarians Role page of Concord Pro's browser interface.

Adding a new part request through Concord Pro's browser interface. Hover over the image to see the form presented to receive the details of the request.Adding a new part request through Concord Pro's browser interface. Hover over the image to see the form presented to receive the details of the request.

Initially, a part request is visible to the original requestor, and all members of the nominated librarian role(s). Once the request has been assigned to a particular librarian, only the requestor and that librarian will see it, and receive notifications about it.
Upon creation of a part request, the requestor, members of the Librarian role, and Concord Pro Administrators, will receive notification in their message stream, on the Stream page of Concord Pro's browser interface (and summarized on the Home page of that interface). In addition to the these event notifications, email notifications will also be received - providing the Email Notifications feature is enabled. This is performed by an Administrator, on the Email Notifications page (Admin - Settings - Email Notifications) of Concord Pro's browser interface.

Admin-Only Interface Elements

The following sections summarize the elements of Concord Pro's browser interface that can only be accessed by Administrative users of Concord Pro - those who are part of the Administrators role. Access to these elements is through the dedicated Admin area of the left-hand navigation tree.

If signed into Concord Pro as a non-administrative user, the Admin area of the tree will be hidden.

Settings

This page (Admin - Settings) provides a collection of sub-pages for configuration of options relating to various features and services provided by, and through, an Altium Concord Pro installation.

The Settings area - part of the admin-only pages within Concord Pro's browser interface.The Settings area - part of the admin-only pages within Concord Pro's browser interface.

When changing any settings, be sure to click the  button at the top-right of a page.

The left-hand side of the page provides a navigation tree with which to quickly access various sub-pages of settings. The following pages are available:

  • General - use this page to change the Name and Description for Concord Pro.
    • AltiumLive Credentials - when using the Private License Service through Concord Pro, these credentials allow the PLS to communicate directly with your Altium account for the initial acquisition of your company licenses. Credentials must also be entered in order to access and obtain initial licensing for Concord Pro itself, from the Altium Cloud.
    • Session Lifetime - use this page to enter a value for the IDS Session Lifetime (in hours). This is how long a Concord Pro user has to remain connected, in a single session, when using a seat of the applicable Client Access License (Altium Concord Pro CAL). By default, the session lifetime is 24 hours.

  • License Manager - this page provides settings relating to using the Private License Service, and selection of its mode. A pre-set suitable default value is used for the Altium Cloud portal URL (http://portal2.altium.com/?cls=soap).

 

For more information, see Private License Service.
  • Email Notifications - this page provides settings to enable and configure Concord Pro's email notifications feature. This facility flags a variety of events to key stakeholders relating to Components, Managed Projects and Part Requests.

For more information, see Configuring Server Email Notifications.
  • Vault - not a page, but rather a structural entry for gathering together settings related to specific functionality within Concord Pro itself.
    • Part Requests - a structural page to gather the following sub-pages related to the Part Request feature:
      • Librarians Role - use this page to specify which role (or roles) should be used to fulfill the role of Librarians for your organization. In essence, you are simply configuring a set of users of your Altium Concord Pro instance, that can be assigned to a part request. If you installed Concord Pro with sample data, then the sample role Librarians will already be prefilled into the Librarian's Role field - remove if required.
      • Custom States - use this page to customize opened and closed states for the Part Request feature.

For more information, see Part Requests.
  • Lifecycle Definitions - use this page to define and manage your Concord Pro's lifecycle definitions, complementing the ability to do this through Altium Designer. Providing better visibility of the states and transitions involved, each lifecycle is built in a graphical way, showing at-a-glance the flows involved.

For more information, see Lifecycle Management.
  • Permissions - this page provides a single option that allows managed components to be deleted from Concord Pro, even if they have been placed on a design document.

  • Components - use this page to define default target folders in which new models should be created, when creating a new Component Item. To change a default folder, click the  button. The Vault Explorer window will appear with which to choose the desired new default target release folder for that model type. Once chosen, click OK to close the window and return to the Components page, with the applicable field updated with the new folder path.

  • Data Cleanup - use this page to quickly delete data items from your Concord Pro instance. This is particularly useful after having experimented with creating and releasing content into your server, for example when trying out the migration of unmanaged libraries, and now you want to 'flush' such experimental data. This functionality works on All Data, or only data that was part of the original Sample Data set (populated at the time Concord Pro was installed). Use the available checkboxes to determine whether to delete all data (All) or specific types of content. With your cleanup strategy configured, click the  button. A window will appear asking for confirmation and alerting you to the fact that this action cannot be undone. To proceed, enter the text delete into the field and then click Yes.

Note that child items cannot be deleted if already referenced (in use) by parent items. The parent items must be deleted first. For example if a component is being used on a managed sheet or within a managed design project, the managed sheet and/or managed project would need to be deleted first.

Remember also that data cleanup is an action that cannot be undone. Be absolutely sure of the data you are deleting before performing this operation. It is advised to create a backup of your data first. Note also that data cleanup operations can take a while to process, depending on the amount of data involved.

  • Projects - use this page to specify the default path (within Concord Pro's folder structure) for newly-released projects. You can also define default sharing permissions for new projects, so that the right users and/or roles have access to those projects from the moment they are created.

  • MCAD CoDesigner - this page provides controls to enable component recognition between the ECAD and MCAD domains, when using the ECAD-MCAD CoDesign feature. This facilitates the use of native components when a design is pushed and pulled between the two domains. The following options are available.
    • Recognize models placed in MCAD and use true electrical components in ECAD instead - enable this option to support use of native components when the board is being Pushed from MCAD and Pulled in to ECAD. The MCAD 3D model is linked to the equivalent Altium Designer component, so when the board is pulled into Altium Designer the MCAD 3D model can be replaced by an instance of the fully-defined Altium Designer component footprint, complete with a 3D model. Use the two sub-fields to determine the MCAD model property and the ECAD component parameter, used to identify components in the two design domains. By default, these fields are populated with the entry PARTNO. The MCAD model property can be your own custom property, or choose MCAD model name from the drop-down. The ECAD component parameter can also be your own custom parameter. These fields are required if the parent option is enabled. If one or both are left blank, the  button will be disabled.
    • Use models from data management system on MCAD side when create PCB assembly - enable this option to support use of native components when the board is being Pushed from ECAD and Pulled in to MCAD. The MCAD software gets the model of the component from the MCAD's data management system (by the model’s name) and then places that component on the MCAD PCB assembly, instead of the model that came from ECAD. Use the sub-field to determine the ECAD component parameter that will be used to store the MCAD model name. By default, this field is populated with the entry MCADModelName. This field is required if the parent option is enabled. If left blank, the  button will be disabled.
MCAD-to-ECAD component linking is available for all supported MCAD platforms. ECAD-to-MCAD native component linking is currently only supported in PTC Creo Parametric. It requires PTC Creo to be connected to a PTC Windchill® server, with the ECAD components stored in a Windchill Workspace. Consult your Creo documentation for information on how to connect to Windchill. If the component is not available in the Windchill Workspace, CoDesigner places the model transferred from the PCB editor and saved in Altium Concord Pro instead.
CoDesigner checks these settings on startup (from Altium Designer and from the MCAD tools). Restart your design software if the settings have been changed in your server.

VCS

Related page: Local Version Control Service

This page (Admin - VCS) provides the interface to the Concord Pro installation's local Version Control Service, for Design Repositories that designers in the organization can validly access and use while working on design projects. SVN-based repositories can be created through this service (if enabled), or external repositories can be connected to.

A new installation of Altium Concord Pro provides a single Git-based design repository for accommodating all of your managed design projects - and that's it! This avoids any setup and complexity regarding Concord Pro's local Version Control service. You have a single design repository - Versioned Storage - for all your designers to access and release into. As such, the VCS page of Concord Pro's browser interface becomes purely informational - you cannot add a new repository, and the single Git repository cannot be modified in any way, nor deleted. If you have upgraded to Altium Concord Pro from Altium NEXUS Server 1.0 (or Altium Vault 3.0), then use of SVN repositories will also be enabled, so that you can continue to use your previous (and established) design flow. In this case, you can continue to create repositories through the local Version Control service (SVN-only), or connect to external repositories (SVN or Git).

The browser-based interface to Altium Concord Pro's local VCS service.The browser-based interface to Altium Concord Pro's local VCS service.

Use the sharing controls to configure user access to the repositories. When a user signs in to Altium Concord Pro, the design repositories available to them will automatically be added to the Data Management - Design Repositories page of the Preferences dialog.

Part Providers

Related page: Part Source Configuration

This page (Admin - Part Providers) enables you to define a list of Part Sources - facilitating centralized supply chain management, with designers across the entire organization using the same approved list of Suppliers, with which to source supply chain intelligence for parts used in their designs.

The available Part Sources in Concord Pro are:

  • Altium Parts Provider - an aggregate supplier data service that provides access to live component information from a comprehensive range of parts suppliers. This Part Source is installed by default.
The Altium Parts Provider settings that are established in Altium Concord Pro will override those in Altium Designer (through the installed Altium Parts Provider extension) when a user signs in to Concord Pro.
  • Custom Database Parts Provider - for situations where parts supply data needs to be accessed from a local database, such as a company’s internal parts database, Concord Pro's Custom Database Parts Provider feature offers interface connectivity for all common database systems (directly, or via an ODBC or OLE-DB interface). The connection can be established manually, through a nominated interface and connection string, or by using Concord Pro's Connection Wizard. Any number of such connections can be defined.
A database connected to by the Custom Database Parts Provider interface system must be locally available to Altium Concord Pro - that is, the database itself must be located on the PC that hosts Concord Pro. In addition, for Altium Designer to be able to interface to any parts database connection that has been setup in Concord Pro, the Custom Database Parts Provider extension must be installed as part of your Altium Designer installation (which it is by default).

The actual supply chain intelligence - comprising Manufacturer (and part number), Supplier (and part number), Description, Pricing and Availability - is sourced from Concord Pro's local Part Catalog and the relevant Part Source.

Each Altium Concord Pro instance has its own dedicated Part Catalog. This is a managed local part catalog database, dedicated to the management and tracking of manufacturer parts and their associated supplier parts. The catalog is installed as a service (Part Catalog Service), provided through the Altium Concord Pro platform, and works only with Altium Concord Pro. The local Part Catalog stores items representative of actual Manufacturer Parts, along with one or more items representative of Supplier Parts - the incarnations of those Manufacturer Parts, as sold by the Suppliers/Vendors. Each Supplier Part is a reference to an item in a parts database - either the aggregate parts database of the Altium Parts Provider (which itself interfaces to, and gathers the parts from, enabled Suppliers), or a linked local parts database.

Enabling required Suppliers and determining Location/Currency ranges for the Altium Parts Provider. This is the default Part Source for Altium Concord Pro. You can also add any number of links to internal company parts databases.Enabling required Suppliers and determining Location/Currency ranges for the Altium Parts Provider. This is the default Part Source for Altium Concord Pro. You can also add any number of links to internal company parts databases.

Health

Related page: Standalone Health Monitor Tool

This page (Admin - Health) provides a web-based Health Monitor. The page delivers a visual summary of the state of the host machine, and the Concord Pro storage system. The page is a browser-based companion to the server's Health Monitor Tool that is available as a standalone application on the server host machine (sourced from the installation's Tools folder), but offers the advantage of being remotely accessible by administrators over the network.

The Health page provides an instant view of the status and health of your Concord Pro installation and the system on which it is installed.The Health page provides an instant view of the status and health of your Concord Pro installation and the system on which it is installed.

As well as the quick visual summary of the server's health, the page also provides the following functionality:

  • Ability to generate a status report for sending to Altium's Support (and ultimately Altium's Developers). To do so, click on the Generate part of the Generate status report for support team text, in the Status area of the page - the necessary reports will be generated and collated in a single Zip archive (vault_status_report_<Date>.zip) and downloaded to your browser's default download folder.
  • Ability to download all log files - containing Error and Warning entries from all of the server’s available Log files, and which are normally located in the \ProgramData\Altium\ConcordProData\logs folder. To do so, click the Download all logs link, in the Logs section of the page. The files will be collated into a single Zip archive (AllLogs.zip) and downloaded to your browser's default download folder.
  • Use the Clear logs link (located at the bottom of the Logs section of the page) to archive, then delete all existing log files. The archive (logs_<Date>.zip) will be stored in the \ProgramData\Altium\ConcordProData\logs.archive folder.
  • To manually refresh the status of your server, click the refresh status link, in the Status area of the page. The health of your server and system will be checked and the page refreshed with the current state accordingly. The date and time reflect the last time the server health was checked.
Note that after initial install of Altium Concord Pro, initial check of server health takes about 5 minutes after accessing the Health page. You can perform a manual refresh to perform the check sooner. Subsequent automatic checking is carried out every 4 hours.
The Altium Concord Pro installation also includes a Health Monitor that can be launched as a standalone tool - on the computer hosting Concord Pro - using the desktop shortcut that is created when Concord Pro is installed. Alternatively, the Health Monitor tool can be found in the \Program Files (x86)\Altium\Altium Concord Pro\Tools\HealthMonitor folder as the avhealth.exe executable. Note that the folder also includes a simplified command-line tool: avConsoleHealth.exe. In this standalone variant, the Health Monitor operates as an independent entity that queries Concord Pro and its host system, and is therefore able to deliver crucial data and information even in the unlikely event that Concord Pro is not fully functioning. For more detailed information regarding this standalone tool, see Health Monitor.

Licenses

Related pages: Licensing, Private License Service

This page (Admin - Licenses) provides the interface to obtain and manage licenses - both for the licensing of Concord Pro itself, and also for serving to client machines over the local network, through the appropriately configured Private License Service (PLS).

Use the various tabs within the Licenses area to obtain, manage and assign licensing for Concord Pro, and for serving to your local network through the PLS. And use the various reports that are available to keep an eye on license usage.Use the various tabs within the Licenses area to obtain, manage and assign licensing for Concord Pro, and for serving to your local network through the PLS. And use the various reports that are available to keep an eye on license usage.

Three tabs are available:

  • Licenses - provides a listing of all licenses currently available. At least two licenses will be required to actually license Altium Concord Pro (Altium Concord Pro and Altium Concord Pro CAL). Other licenses can be added for serving through the PLS. Licenses can be acquired either From cloud (choose from a list of licenses available to your company from the Altium portal), or From file (import existing alf license files from disk).
  • Roles - provides the ability to assign licenses to Roles (or groupings) of Users. In Local PLS mode, the Concord Pro PLS can selectively offer software licenses that have been assigned to a specific Role. By default (unless otherwise specified), all licenses acquired by Concord Pro are assigned to the All Users Role, and therefore available to any User that connects to the PLS.
  • Reports - the Private License Service includes a range of license usage monitoring and reporting features that can be used to audit how licenses are used within an organization. This is useful for ensuring that the best use is being made of the available license seats, for anticipating future license requirements, and to determine the usage of individual Users. A range of reporting options are available, accessed by specific sub-tabs. Depending upon the type of information that's required for each report, the associated reporting filters can be applied to tailor the results to include specific Licenses, Roles, Users, and time periods. There is also an option to export the current report to disk in CSV format, compatible with Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet applications, for administration and accounting purposes.

Component Sync

Related page: Component Synchronization with Enterprise Systems

This page (Admin - Component Sync) provides the interface to the Component Sync Service. It is from here that you define the connection to an enterprise system instance, including configuration file, and enable/configure synchronization of your enterprise system components with those in Concord Pro.

With the interface set up and working, features and functionality are provided that cater for the uni- or bi-directional synchronization of your component data between your instance of Altium Concord Pro and your enterprise system instance. Configuration allows you to specify which parameters are mastered in which system. In addition, Item parameters enable you to update a Component Item's properties in Concord Pro (configurable per field), without having to formally release a new revision of that Component Item.

Altium Concord Pro does not offer full PLM integration - this level of integration is only available through Altium NEXUS. Note also that synchronization of Part Choice data is unidirectional - from the enterprise system to Altium Concord Pro only.
To create a new interface instance, click the  button. As many instances can be defined as required, to interface your Altium Concord Pro installation to various different enterprise system instances. For example, your components might reside in one instance, or perhaps different divisions are using different instances (of the same or differing enterprise system). Each instance must be uniquely named and have a configuration file. To test the connection for a defined instance, click the  button.
Sample configuration files are provided - click the Download sample configuration link to obtain the zip file ConfigurationSamples.zip. This zip contains basic configuration files for Windchill, Arena and Agile PLM systems. Modify these to suit your company's requirements.

Add and configure the interface to your company's enterprise system. With a valid connection, you can schedule synchronization of components between that system and your Concord Pro instance.Add and configure the interface to your company's enterprise system. With a valid connection, you can schedule synchronization of components between that system and your Concord Pro instance.

Synchronization of components between Concord Pro and the connected enterprise system instance - or to be more specific, their parametric data - is very flexible, and involves the following:

  1. Configuring the synchronization for each component type. This involves:
    1. Determining the direction of synchronization.
    2. Determining which components are involved, and where new components are to be created.
    3. Configuring parameter mapping.
  2. Performing the synchronization.

The first item is handled in the configuration file used for the connected enterprise system instance. The synchronization itself can be performed on-demand, from the Component Sync page of Concord Pro's browser interface, and/or can be scheduled - automated synchronization at periodic intervals, defined when configuring the connection to the enterprise system instance.

To set up scheduled synchronization requires you to provide valid credentials (for your enterprise system). Click the  button and enter your User name and Password into the subsequent System Credentials window. Without valid credentials, scheduled synchronization will remain in the OFF state. On-demand synchronization will also not be possible.

Status

This page (Admin - Status) provides status-related information for Concord Pro, and quick access to log files. It is presented over three regions:

  • Installed Services - providing version information for the current Altium Concord Pro installation.
  • Path to database and files - providing information about the installation paths for the database and data, including the type of database being used by Altium Concord Pro.
  • Logs - providing information about the installation path to log files. For each distinct service, click on the associated  icon to download a zip containing the relevant set of log files.

The Status page provides installation details, as well as log files for the various services.The Status page provides installation details, as well as log files for the various services.

 

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